School districts in metro Atlanta are paying up to deal with a shortage of bus drivers.

The Henry County Board of Education held a special meeting on Monday to bump up pay for school bus drivers by $2 an hour, pushing starting pay to more than $17.60. New and current drivers will also get a $1,000 bonus.

Following months of job fairs and promoting wages of up to $25 an hour on employment websites, The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that six of metro Atlanta’s seven largest school districts are assigning existing drivers’ double routes or adjusting schedules to get children to class on time.

Despite the traffic congestion it can cause, some districts are also encouraging parents to drive their children to school. “That is kind of a change of course from years past when we didn’t want them to do that,” Henry County Schools spokesman J.D. Hardin said of parents now taking their kids to school.

Unfortunately, the issue is not new. Steve Simmons, president of the national association for pupil transportation, says hiring drivers was a problem before the pandemic: “COVID has exacerbated the challenge for school districts.”

For instance, according to an Associated Press report, a school district in Montana is offering bus driving candidates $4,000 bonuses to take the job. In Delaware, parents in one community can get $700 to drive their children to school.

“Since the first day of school we have had 17 resign,” Clayton County Schools Superintendent Morcease Beasley reportedly said during a YouTube Live broadcast Wednesday.

Gwinnett County Schools is one of the few districts with a full roster of drivers. Gwinnet’s bus drivers now make more than $25 an hour.

DeKalb Schools leaders said the district is offering a $600 stipend for new drivers who complete training and an additional $600 after they have transported students for 30 days, The AJC reports.

Fulton Schools is now starting pay at $20.40 an hour and is offering a $1,000 signing bonus through Aug. 31, the district said. And Cobb Schools said the district will offer bus drivers and monitors a $1,200 retention bonus in their December payroll.

In addition, The AJC points out, the stronger job market has given bus drivers more employment options. Gwinnett Schools spokesman Bernard Watson echoed that sentiment to local media this week: “What history has shown us is when the economy is not doing well and jobs are harder to come by, we have fewer vacancies,”

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